Filibuster

NPC-operated siege variant converted from the Trebuchet hull.

The Crimson Fleet parks the Trebuchet in front of its guns and lets the enemy waste a battle on it. Pirates liked the idea and could not afford the alloys, so they built theirs out of whatever plate came off the last convoy, in layers, until the welders ran out of rod. It is slow. It carries two guns that nobody aboard takes seriously. What it does carry is people: two hundred deckhands with nothing to do in a fight except wait at the hatches. Prize crews who latch onto a Filibuster find out about the deckhands in the first corridor. Strongholds keep their Filibusters parked across the home approach, and send them out when a blockade needs to be pushed rather than outrun. Older pirates say the word meant their trade long before it meant talking until the other side gave up. The ship does both.